Thursday, November 7, 2013

Zero Charisma

To an extent, I am a nerd. I have
watched thousands of movies, read hundreds of comics and played a
truckload of video games over the past two decades. Instead of socializing with
relatives I prefer sitting in my room and playing video games or discussing The X Files with my other man-child
friends. I’ve seen movies that made caricatures of nerds, but I’d never ever
seen a movie about nerds – until I
watched Zero Charisma.

Directed by the editors of Best Worst Movie Katie Grahams and
Andrew Matthews, Zero Charisma is an utterly,
darkly hilarious (and a wee bit tear-jerking) film that plunges into the
bizarre, hysterical depths of nerd culture. This isn’t anything like The Big Bang Theory where all the
characters are grossly exaggerated and the jokes are watery thin. The
protagonist here literally has zero charisma – he’s an outcast, a burly
overgrown dude who has nothing to show in life but his mastery of tabletop RPGs
with friends who are even bigger losers than him.

Scott (played by Sam Eidson) is a
modern day, comical version of Travis Bickle – he hates the idea of modern
computer games that detach you from the spirit of social gaming, and he will go
to any extent to preserve the sanctity of table top RPGs and being a ‘game
master’. Every Thursday night is Game Night where he sits with his fellow nerds
in his grandmother’s kitchen and initiates a medieval fantasy game where he
acts out the cut scenes and the characters through an amusingly flimsy system of
rules that he has formulated. Despite his age he plays passionately with his
action figures in his bedroom and really hates it when someone unceremoniously
walks in. He truly loves the spirit of the games and the tiny culture he is
part of. Which is why he can’t take it when a new member joins in his team and
turns out to be smarter and better versed with geek culture than him.

Directors Grahams and Matthews
truly get nerd culture. When Scott
plays with his action figures or moderates his games, an epic World of Warcraft
and LOTR orchestra style music kicks in to reflect what Scott sees in his
head during those moments. Two years ago in Bombay I met a celebrated filmmaker
whom I worshipped like a God and he turned out to be a spineless hypocrite who
can’t give two shits about cinema or his fans. I was reminded of this incident
when Scott meets his idol, an ageing tabletop RPG enthusiast and is dumbstruck by
his lack of tact for his fans and interest in the spirit of tabletop gaming.

Zero Charisma also beautifully establishes the contrast between its
two central characters – Miles, the popular, successful, handsome, new guy in
the team uses geek culture for fun for his own benefit, but for Scott it’s a
disease he can’t get rid of. Scott’s family life is a depressing hell – his
only means of escape is by indulging in the fantasy world of his games and
listening to Death Metal. It wouldn’t have been possible to empathize with Scott
had the character been played by anyone but Eidson – his comic timing is
terrific and he brings this helpless innocence to his character, just enough
to make you laugh at him but also reach out to him. It’s admirable that the
filmmakers supplant the protagonist’s pity with humor and still manage to move
you. And it’s even more incredible that this movie is accessible to those who
aren’t even familiar with nerds, games, metal, dungeons and dragons.

There are many, many more things in Zero Charisma that make me sure that it will be remembered over the next twenty years the way we remember Clerks now. Like that Kevin Smith movie, this is a funny, tiny budget indie with observations that have never been made before and characters who’re part of a culture that’s always been a bit misunderstood. Real life hardcore nerds will see their own lives unfolding in front of their eyes, and they’ll be glad that someone finally made a movie about them instead of ridiculing them. For that, I give directors Grahams and Matthews 500 Experience Points.